Koobi Fora – now a Field School – is Richard Leakey’s renowned prehistoric site on the eastern edge of Lake Turkana. It features briefly in BREATH OF AFRICA, and not far away lies the site of a petrified forest, where great stone roots and vines entwine themselves among fissures of rock.

Enormous logs, cracked and broken by earthquakes, retain the grain of the original wood, and small stones of fascinating hues litter the area, in shades of brown, green and orange.